Legion Post 20 gets report on Afghan evacuation from member who was there

In a sometimes-emotional Feb. 16 virtual meeting of National Press Club American Legion Post 20, Erik Doman, a former foreign service officer and Post 20 member, recounted his participation in efforts to evacuate personnel from Afghanistan in the chaos that followed the U.S. military withdrawal in August 2021.

Doman, an Army vet and a USAID and Department of Defense consultant, blamed a "bureaucratic food fight" between the Defense and State Departments for much of the debacle that has left thousands of Afghani allies stranded in the Taliban-controlled country.   

Although the Taliban may eventually let Afghans who worked with USAID and the State Department out of the country, he fears that "it may be too late" to save those who worked with the U.S. military, especially interpreters. He said some aspects of the withdrawal are "too ugly to address" and that he knows there have been summary executions of Afghans who worked with the U.S.

Doman left Afghanistan before the evacuation was complete but worked with government and volunteer groups in Washington during the final withdrawal.  He described "chaos and desperation" in Kabul at the swift takeover of the country by the Taliban.  "It was a shock to everyone," he said, citing estimates by the Central Intelligence Agency that predicted a much slower Taliban advance. 

He estimated that some 180,000 Afghani allies eligible for evacuation remain in the country, not including their dependents, and that some 30% of the nearly 125,000 already brought to the U.S. do not qualify for evacuation for having worked with the U.S.

He noted that efforts were made by British soldiers to rescue allies stranded in Kabul once the U.S. occupied only Kabul airport "because the Brits were willing to take more risks in getting people out." He said the decision to restrain U.S. soldiers was "made at the top." Doman praised the U.S. military for its role in stateside refugee resettlement, including quickly building a school at Fort Bliss for some 3,000 children -- a project he worked on. Some evacuation flights involving relatively small numbers of refugees are continuing, but he said processing refugees at  centers in Abu Dhabi and elsewhere can be painfully slow.

Post 20 commander Jim Noone called Doman report "a sad and sobering story" and several Vietnam War Post 20 members said it was sadly reminiscent of the abandonment of Vietnamese allies after the fall of Saigon in April, 1975.